Israeli court rules Bitcoin an assets and taxable

[Nalbo]

In a tax settlement case raised by the tax authority of Israel against Noam Copel, founder of blockchain startup DAV, the court ruled bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be considered as an assets and taxable with capital gains tax.

https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-court-rules-bitcoin-is-an-asset-in-feud-over-tax-payment

Would you consider it a good more or a bad one for the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

[gentlemand]

This is silly - 'The presiding judge, Shmuel Bornstein, made the point in his arguments that bitcoin as a cryptocurrency could cease to exist and be replaced by another digital currency. Hence, it cannot be considered a currency, especially for tax purposes.'

Plenty of 'legitimate' currencies have disappeared and been replaced too.

Anyway, in the UK foreign currency profits are taxable as capital gains. They've chosen to treat crypto as a foreign currency. He's made a fucking massive profit. I would expect to be taxed on it.

[KennyR]

Already Israel has considered bitcoin under the taxable asset similar to gold. Here, it is once again revealed that it is taxable. This is good in my opinion, when something is getting taxed it is getting legalized which makes common people get out of the fear and use cryptocurrency.

[CryptoBry]

Already Israel has considered bitcoin under the taxable asset similar to gold. Here, it is once again revealed that it is taxable. This is good in my opinion, when something is getting taxed it is getting legalized which makes common people get out of the fear and use cryptocurrency.

I think for me it does not matter much if the government treats bitcoin as a currency or an asset because whatever the category you still have to pay taxes for capital gains. I think in USA you have to pay capital gains tax once you sell or trade your bitcoin. This is better than not recognizing at all or making bitcoin illegal like in China or even in Russia. Overall, Israel is not bad for the cryptocurrency movement as I am aware there are many crypto-related start ups in that country. 

[rijaljun]

If they decided to apply tax for Bitcoin it means they accept Bitcoin existence as an asset. It is something good in my opinion, taxes are bad for us but by taxing Bitcoin, people should not worry to use Bitcoin in their daily life anymore. Further more, when government realize Bitcoin added significant contribution to their tax revenue, they might be legalize the use of Bitcoin in their country. Nothing is more important than massive adoption. This is what actually we need.

[kryptqnick]

In a tax settlement case raised by the tax authority of Israel against Noam Copel, founder of blockchain startup DAV, the court ruled bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be considered as an assets and taxable with capital gains tax.

https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-court-rules-bitcoin-is-an-asset-in-feud-over-tax-payment

Would you consider it a good more or a bad one for the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

Israel simply did its best to make a decision that will result in more profits for the country. I think it's wrong to treat Bitcoin as an asset, but it would be okay if the tax was minor. It is, however, absolutely huge, and equals around 36% is this specific case. Moreover, the article mentions that traders not only pay the capital gains tax but an additional 17% value-added tax. I think it's an unfair treatment of people who bring innovation and attract investors into the country.
I hope, however, that other countries who still did not make their decisions about the way of treating cryptos for tax purposes will not follow the policies of Israel in this regard.

[Lumi3004]

I am not opposed to Israel's rules on Bitcoin, there are two things that are considered positive and negative.
Positive, from the rules of Bitcoin being as israel's assets this is a good ledge and can be taken as an example for developing countries, towards crypto today.
Tax-negative, this is actually not required for bitcoin users.

[Beerwizzard]

I would uncover a secret: cryptocurrencies were taxable even back in 2017. At least everyone who had a good income in crypto and exchanged it into fiat had tp deal with his government and pay taxes. The example from OP is pretty obvious: if you are establishing a firm that earns money in cryptocurrencies then you should probably pay some taxes. If a firm is located in germany but earns money in USD then it would still have to pay taxes. Same with crypto.

[rosezionjohn]

I am not familiar with their tax laws so I cannot really comment on the court's decision.

I just think it is unethical for Noam to use cryptocurrency to run from it's obligation to pay tax on its profits from the sale of Bitcoin. It was also wrong for him to think bitcoin as a foreign currency.

[BrewMaster]

in other words yet another government that wants its share of the money that people might have earned from the cryptocurrency market because of the bitcoin price rise that has happened in the past. nothing new really, some other countries have done the same thing.
the only thing that this means for bitcoin is that it will keep adoption of it at bay since only investors would come not real users.

[SaShiRaJaVu]

In a tax settlement case raised by the tax authority of Israel against Noam Copel, founder of blockchain startup DAV, the court ruled bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be considered as an assets and taxable with capital gains tax.

Would you consider it a good more or a bad one for the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

It is bad for people in Israel as it is considered as an asset, every country has their own interpretation on how they view the virtual currency and its market, from where i am located there is no legal frame work and yet we are liable to pay tax as capital gains in order to get rid of the legal issues at a later stage.

in other words yet another government that wants its share of the money that people might have earned from the cryptocurrency market because of the bitcoin price rise that has happened in the past.

Government survives by looting people who makes money, so it is not that surprising.

[uneng]

I don't see any surprise on it, as even in countries where there isn't a legislation about bitcoin that is the common procedure, to consider the virtual currency as an asset and to take taxes over the profit made by the investor (rates vary from country to country).
The sad part of this story is that Israel court legalized this practice. However I doubt many bitcoin users will follow this rule. In other countries I still have hope that a friendly legislation towards bitcoin users can be approved, stopping the extortion made by governments through taxes over profit.

[Genemind]

Every government knows how bitcoin works and how people make money from it. They're trying to govern it but it's something that they couldn't rule over so if they couldn't manipulate it, they would just make money out of it as well.
They will surely tax it because that's the nature of the government, they will tax everything.

[Mike Mayor]

Eh... How exactly is crypto going to be taxed? Does the goverment have crypto wallets for paying into? No seriously I want to know because so many people keep going on about crypto bring taxed. It can't be taxed how?
Please explain how crypto will be taxed?? At the end of the year I must send my crypto taxes to goverment controlled crypto addresses? You talk of capital gains. Capital gains on one currency to another?

So capital gains on trading eth to btc and back to eth again? So I make let us say 2X profit and I had 1btc now I have 2btc so now my gain is 1btc and capital gains is 10-21% so I must pay 0.10-0.21 btc?? To where exactly?
You pay vat tax when you buy anything anyway. If I buy a car with bitcoin I pay vat tax there is nothing else to tax. Crypto is not an offical currency of the govenment and noone is in control of it so it cannot be taxed.

The only way the goverment can tax crypto is if they create their own blockchain and currency and require people to be paid in that. Good luck with that though. Times have changed and the goverments have lost control.

[Ailmand]

How will the government tax every transaction if they couldn't regulate cryptocurrency? It will be hard for them to track it so I guess most users would never follow the legislative law of taxation. I hope that Israel would be the last country to tax crypto users. We're already paying fees and it would be too heavy to pay for high taxes.

[kingpin4321]

Well this sounds a no surprise because alot of people are converting there asset or receiving payment in bitcoin some in the bid to evade task. But still how would the government know the amount of bitcoin one has or are they going to start searching devices?

[pushups44]

In a tax settlement case raised by the tax authority of Israel against Noam Copel, founder of blockchain startup DAV, the court ruled bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be considered as an assets and taxable with capital gains tax.

https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-court-rules-bitcoin-is-an-asset-in-feud-over-tax-payment

Would you consider it a good more or a bad one for the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

This is inevitable if bitcoin is going to be used by the mainstream. In the U.S. more regulatory clarity is needed to draw in institutional investors. Perhaps there should be a de minimis rule allowing the spending of up to $500 as a non-taxable event.

[pixie85]

It's better than fighting it or ignoring it. If they recognize it and want tax money it's fine with me. I'd be more concerned if they were trying to ban it.

How will the government tax every transaction if they couldn't regulate cryptocurrency? It will be hard for them to track it so I guess most users would never follow the legislative law of taxation. I hope that Israel would be the last country to tax crypto users. We're already paying fees and it would be too heavy to pay for high taxes.

They will only tax profits once a year and transactions with companies that comply with regulations and bill you for every transaction. With cash you also can't tax every transaction. In the US there are thousands of illegal construction workers who aren't taxed. Still better than nothing for the government.

[FullofAlba]

In a tax settlement case raised by the tax authority of Israel against Noam Copel, founder of blockchain startup DAV, the court ruled bitcoin and cryptocurrency to be considered as an assets and taxable with capital gains tax.

https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-court-rules-bitcoin-is-an-asset-in-feud-over-tax-payment

Would you consider it a good more or a bad one for the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies?

How exactly are they going to tax BTC and/or Crypto???

[DreamStage]

I am considering it as good and optimal in case they will use that approach as an advantage to take out many scammers such as pronzi schemes where they will have to report where there profits come from.
Think it as a main security measure for such money laundry. Israel will be a much better place with a better economy without these kind of scam scenes.
It can also be a measure to take down other sort of scams of course such as corruption.